606: Cutting Edge
| Cutting Edge |
 Title text: I remember trying to log in to the original Command and Conquer servers a year or two back and feeling like I was knocking on the boarded-up gates of a ghost town. |
[edit] Explanation
Half-Life 2 is a computer game (a first person shooter) released in 2004. In this comic, Cueball plays it in 2009. New games usually require recent and powerful computers, which are expensive. However, even a very weak 2009 computer will comfortably run a 2004 game, plus the price for a game, even a new, highly-anticipated, AAA game, is almost definitely guaranteed to have fallen due to the presence of newer games and the relative maturity of the present game. (Since most of the expected sales of a game happen near the release, a game would not be deemed that lucrative after 5 years, prompting a price drop to justify its sales or even printing.)
On the last panel, "The cake is a lie" and "This was a triumph" are references to the Portal, a videogame released in late 2007. It is presumed that in 2013 references to Portal are rather old-fashioned. Incidentally, both Portal and Half-Life 2 were released by the same company, Valve. Portal 2 was released in 2011.
[edit] Transcript
[Megan is standing. Cueball sits at a computer.]
- Megan: Where've you been all week?
- Cueball: Playing Half-Life 2!
- Megan: ... that came out in 2004.
- Cueball: I get games on a five-year lag. That way, I never have to buy a high-end system, but get the same steadily-advancing gaming experience as people who do -- and at a fraction of the price.
- Cueball: There are no downsides!
- Megan: I can think of one...
- Early 2013.
- Cueball: Guys!
- Cueball: The cake is a lie!
- [Musical notes surround an italic line, suggesting Cueball is singing.]
- Cueball: This was a triumph.
- Cueball: The cake is a lie!
- Megan, friend: Sigh
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